Castlevania netflix discussion (use spoiler tags)

I don't know where they could go from here. Other than "cleanup" for the Trevor era as far as lingering threats, I think they should just move on to the next era. Carmilla and Issac aren't really worth the trouble, at least to me.

I didn't even notice the Curse of Darkness elements because I never played it and never had an interest in it. I just hope no one was a HUGE fan of Hector as a character...because holy shit. They made him an absolute whipping boy to say the least.

Fuuuuuuuuck, I already miss Dracula.
What a great character and what a send-off.

I haven't read this thread, but use this whenever you can.

Finally, they played a Castlevania song. Finally. Just one though. That's still my biggest complaint.

Leon Belmont was obviously part of this version's time line. They don't go into Elizabetha or Mathias, but Dracula comments on the "Morning Star" whip. So they don't wanna call the whip Vampire Killer. Ok...

The order Sypha is with has beef with God too? Man, Warren Ellis must have been bent over by a priest. Even Lisa was like, "Dracula's is worse (than Satan) because he's real." To me Lisa is a holy person. Her holy powers are what give Alucard the ability to use holy weapons. That's just my head cannon, but my head cannon is something I like much better than the world Ellis has created. I'm totally happy with this series, but of all the cynical writers to put on it... why someone who doesn't even care about the games? At least the Deats bros make up for most of what Ellis didn't put in.

The animation was really good. I love that the art style is so inspired by Ayami Kojima's version of the characters. The hair lines are a bit straight and Trevor's facial hair get on my nerves sometimes, but that's minor. The colors are really good.

I'm really glad they added more variety of monsters this season. There's one shot of Giabon and Slogra that was totally drawn from a fan art reference though. Sucks that person isn't getting the credit for that. I'd post the pic but Adi Shankar already has on his FaceBook.

Issac is very different. I think they should have went all out with the sexual stuff with him. Changing his design away from Kojima's version felt weird to me, but Trevor looks a lot different too. The world just isn't ready for the real Issac, I guess. Maybe in season three he will force a kiss on Trevor.

Godbrand... so they can have a guy obsessed with boats or whatever, but they can't have Grant. I swear every time he was on screen I was getting Metalocalypse vibes.

Hector went out like a bitch at the end. The ending with Alucard crying just sums up how emo he is in this. Alucard's emo level is way over 9k.

Carmilla is loyal to Dracula. Her character in this is just wrong to me. Not that it's cannon, but Circle of the Moon is a great example of how Carmilla should be. Also, ever wonder why as a boss in Rondo she has Laura? It's because someone can actually read a book. Carmilla is gay. When Drac asked her if she was going to sleep with Godbrand she said if all the other men were dead and half the women. That would have been a good moment to say something more accurate to Carmilla. Damn you Warren Ellis. Instead he just made her a bitchy feminist that had to comment on how many female vampires were involved and how they weren't as much as a strong woman as she was. She cut her old white guy master's head off to liberate herself though. Good for her.

Ellis has created a world where the church is 200% evil and all vampires except for Alucard and at one point Dracula are too. So much for character depth. These vampires were very stale in character. They had cool designs that made them stand out from one another, but no character depth. It just goes to show how the animation and art style saves this show.

I liked all the references to the things in the Belmont's hidden room. Medusa head was the best!

Why did Trevor Belmont (T Bell) not use the whip to whip off Drac's head at the end!? He used the sword instead. Come on, perfect CV1 reference ruined.

An undead priest sure can bless a whole lot of water.

Alucard giving the finger was funny.

The scene where the heroes enter the castle and kill everything was bad ass. That one scene reassured me that this series is good on it's own. If I put all my fan stuff to the side, it's good. I just get fickle when it comes to separating it as it's own thing.

Sypha just kinda forces Trevor into a relationship at the end. I don't know what to say about that, but it's interesting. Trevor doesn't reciprocate really.

The undead pug Hector had was just the best. I wonder if Alucard will find it. Maybe he can cuddle it while he cries in his lonely emo castle.


Oh, and they were talking about the language men spoke before the tower of Babble. They called it something other than Enochian. Either I am wrong, or they are, but either way, IGA is big on that at least with Bloodstained, as the runes on Miriam are Enochian symbols. It's the language of angles or that of man in the garden of Eden.



Oh, and I like the "Army of the Night" line. Did Ellis actually throw a reference to Bloodstained?



I'm sure there are other things too that I'm forgetting.

marginalization of holy powers thing. I actually didn't understand the implications but reading your posts yeah, it's pretty jarring to see such a thing in Castlevania where holy powers are theoretically the best way to defeat Drac and the vampires. Also yes, Godbrand was a strange character. I'd have preferred more fleshed out vampires instead of a drunkard comic relief that gets killed instantly but well.

I do want to comment on Godbrand though.  My favorite part of his character is that he's voiced by Peter Stormare.  He's such a large ham in everything that he's in that it kind of added to his comedy.  Look him up if you thought his voice seemed familiar, because it probably was.  I don't think that's a spoiler since that's right on the IMDB page, but I'll put it in tags anyway.

What pisses me off about Hector's inclusion isn't that "he went out like a bitch" per say.  It's that his entire character...his entire purpose in the story amounted to indirectly creating some holy water.  The very first backstory we got on his character wasn't even animated.  He got two animated backstory/flashback scenes that didn't involve the crux of his descent into "madness", for lack of a better term.  I think that was a fundamental mistake, despite the "voices in my head" scene being decently done if a bit awkward.  His two animated flashbacks were him playing with a puppy and then SKIPPING THE FIRE...and talking to Dracula.  Compare that to Isaac who not only got his descent into "madness" scene animated, it actually was brutal.  Why did Isaac's story get animated and not Hector's?  I can think of a scene or 3 that could have been cut to give them the opportunity.
Back to the Holy Water thing, I think back to every scene with Hector and it involves him getting belittled by feminist self-insert personality Carmilla, droning on about animals, or maybe creating a few monsters.  Then the ending has him getting beaten up in a scene that lasted waaaaaaaaaay too long by Carmilla.  I'm aware that it was supposed to be uncomfortable, but that reminded me of the poorly done dog scene from Elfen Lied.  It was just as poorly animated, just as dull, and honestly could have been cut down.  That was the last scene Hector was in.  Hector has one of the most miserable arcs I've seen in a while.  That's why I was saying "I hope no one was a Curse of Darkness fan".  After watching the season, I looked up Curse of Darkness and Hector and I'm even more confused as to why they did this.  Did they need a whipping boy for their "new and improved" Carmilla?  He did nothing the whole season but get shit on.

That's a big reason from a short list why I don't find the concept of them continuing in the Trevor era in season 3 that compelling.  It would just be clean up at best, and them trying to salvage Hector at worst...which is impossible at this point.

The whole lack of church/holy elements and the whole church being unambiguously evil thing is what I expected from a netflix show. I'm trying my HARDEST to not get political here, but netflix isn't a centrist platform to say the least.
I get it guys, it is weird. However, I don't think this will change in the future. If they ever adopt Simon's journey, then him being a "Holy Warrior" will be gone entirely.